Wall Street pauses after seven-day rally

Blue chip stocks on Wall Street staged a late rally, lifting the Dow Jones Industrial Average to its eighth-day gain.

The Dow reached 12,239.89, a 30-month high, after rising 6.74 points, or 0.1%, at the close (10am NZ time).

Broader market indexes, however, finished lower as investors were generally cautious after Asian markets fell broadly overnight in reaction to the China interest-rate hike that came late on Tuesday. Indexes in Hong Kong, India and Korea all fell to their lowest closes of the year.

The Dow was boosted by a strong result from Walt Disney, which surged 5.3%. Coca-Cola gained 0.5 on its result, while HP, 3M and Travelers all rose 1.5% or more.

The S&P 500 index was down 0.3% to 1320.88 at the close, while the Nasdaq Composite was also off 0.3% to 2789.07.

Energy and financial stocks were the two biggest laggards among the S&P 500's 10 sectors, with Chevron falling 1.5% and Exxon Mobil slipping 0.5%.

Other markets: Europe, Asia down
European stocks were mostly lower. Shares in London Stock Exchange rose 9.6% after it said it planned to merge with Canada's TMX Group in an all-stock transaction. The merged entity will have more than 6700 companies listed, with an aggregate market capitalisation of £3.7 trillion.

London's FTSE 100 Index was down 0.7% at 6049.76 after the heavily weighted mining and oil-production sectors fell into the red.

France’s CAC-40 Index was off 0.4% at 4090.72 and Germany's DAX declined 0.1% to 7312.06.

Chinese and Hong Kong stocks led most Asian markets lower on fears that Beijing, which raised interest rates this week, will make further tightening moves in coming months that could hurt Chinese demand.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei Stock Average snapped a three-session winning streak to finish down 0.2% at 10,617.83. Toyota Motor shares rose5.3% after raising its earnings forecast.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index fell 1.4% to 23,164.03, its lowest close of the year. The Shanghai Composite index shed 0.9% to 2774.07 after reopening following the Lunar New Year holidays.

Taiwan's Taiex gave up 1.1% to 9006.82, Korea's Kospi lost 1.2% to 2045.58 and India's Sensex fell 1% to 17,592.77.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 bucked the trend, rising 0.3% to 4904.76, a 10-month closing high.

Commodities: Oil mixed, gold up
Oil futures gave back gains after the US government reported an unexpected increase in fuel supplies.

Light, sweet crude for March delivery settled 23USc, or 0.3%, down at $US86.71 a barrel in New York after earlier trading as high as $US87.95. Brent crude on the ICE futures exchange rose $1.90, or 1.9%, to $US101.80, extending its premium over the Nymex contract to a record $US15.11.

A steady dollar buoyed gold prices. The thinly traded February-delivery contract was up $1.40, or 0.1%, at $US1364.80 an ounce in New York.

The most actively traded contract, for April delivery, was also up $US1.40 to $US1365.60 an ounce.

Currencies: Euro up, dollar down
The euro added to its gains against the US dollar after prepared remarks from Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke essentially reiterated that unemployment is high and inflation is not a worry, signalling that loose monetary policy will continue.

The euro was at $US1.3703 from $US1.3696 compared with $US1.3633 late on Tuesday in New York.

The dollar was at ¥82.32 from ¥82.35, while sterling fetched $US1.6113 from $US1.6073 despite data showing the UK's goods-trade deficit reached a record high in December.